In The End
by Neheigh Fluffydoodle
Summary: "How can you know light if you have not known darkness? At the hour of shadows one must embrace both within themselves for the truth of power to be revealed to those who accept their fates." With these words, they looked at each other as the divination professor collapsed before them. A LITTLE ONE SHOT AU/OOC MAY SEEM A LITTLE DARK BUT THEIR IS ALWAYS LIGHT IN THE DARKEST PLACES.


**Just a warning I am Dyslexic so my stories will not be perfect but I now have one Beta reader to help me along the way :D**

**Thank you so much to Roshelle Diall for offering to work with me :D**

**Well I've slept finally :D**

**Yet I started to wonder if I write my best work sleep deprived?**

**Something to think about I suppose.**

**This little one shot is for Faith and our mad half hour singing in your car today**

**where I got the idea.**

**My inspiration for this fic: In the end. By: The black veiled brides.**

**Give it a listen :)**

**Neh xxx**

**I do not own Harry Potter, though a girl can dream :P**

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It had been seven long years. Seven years of dealing with this dismal and brutal war as she stood there standing on the precipice between what was said to be the dark and light sides. She saw no light and no dark, only shadow. Where neither could survive. Across from her stood her new opponent. He who by all rights she should be trying to destroy. Trying to win for the light, but it struck her most keenly in that moment on that day three years ago when, laughing together deceptively, they had slipped out of the library hand in hand to come face to face with Professor Trelawney. Her eyes looked hollow and glazed, rolling back as she grabbed their entwined hands.

"How can you know light if you have not known darkness? At the hour of shadows one must embrace both within themselves for the truth of power to be revealed to those who accept their fates." With these words they had looked at each other as the divination professor collapsed before them. Making sure to set an alarm spell to ring they both set off for their own dorms, praying Trelawney would not remember the two children she had found while on night patrol. Luckily the next day over the breakfast table, Trelawney could be heard telling everyone within listening radius of how her inner eye had been so entangled of the fates of the children she had collapsed the night before by the library.

Their eyes met across the room for the brief communication, neither needed to speak. That year had made sure of that, those stolen moments in hidden corners as they confirmed their needs for each other, that internal need that would only be sated by the other's touch. It had always been there and only that year had they finally given into the desires they held, with caresses and kisses they had marked their love, but it was not to last. They could not be and even though they fought the knowledge of the truth with the moments spent together, that night as they parted from each other would be the last time. They were on opposite sides and there they must stay.

A year later they had come back changed, both of them with the ideals of their cause, each of them dragging themselves apart. The elastic like connection between them straining as they walked away from what they desired, but could not posses. Each showed their grief for their loss in private, each hating the other insanely for not seeing the truth. She could not go with him, he was afraid to turn his back on those who would likely curse him to oblivion to do so. Dumbledore's death had spoken the end for their hope that the other would change. There was no changing blood.

That year they had spent the furthest apart in seven years, one searching to destroy the others beliefs, while the other found reason to doubt in the beliefs of his family and friends anyway. The haunting eyes of the late headmaster never leaving his dreams. Never fading with each passing day. The screams of her torture as they had tried to make her talk still rang through his head. As in the centre of that battleground Draco Malfoy looked upon the only girl he had ever loved, Hermione Granger, as they came together to fight to the death for that is what each side sauté to destroy the other.

"In the end, it comes to this." Hermione had tears pouring down her face as she looked at the man across from her who despite everything, she still loved unconditionally.

"Run Hermione, Run! I will protect you as you fade into the night." tears flowed freely from his own eyes he had never cried before anyone before, Malfoy's didn't cry! But as he stood there and realised it had come to this, he knew she would not leave.

"Who will tell the story of your life, Hermione? Who will care if you run away now?" he cried willing her with all his body, heart and soul to leave! She was a muggle born. When Voldemort won she would not be allowed to live, he knew this and he hated it. Their wands still pointed at each other's hearts as they stood there, unable to turn away unable to do what they were expected.

"And who will remember your last goodbye, Draco?" her heart was breaking, she couldn't do it. She couldn't harm the man she loved so she did the only thing she could think of, not knowing in those moments he had come to the same conclusion. The enchantment they had found that night in the library, the night Trelawney had caught them together, the night she had predicted the battle in shadows. They both used it now. Once cast there was no way to stop the spell, as each of their wands slowly started glowing and disintegrating, the shimmering particles flowing across the distance to dance around the other, the ultimate shielding charm made from their own pure magic.

"What are you doing Hermione? STOP!" Draco cried as her wand slowly and painfully disintegrated like a lit cigarette burning down towards her hand until there was nothing left. His own disappeared at the same moment, each shimmering with a protective cloak of the others magic, neither able to defend themselves.

"Cause it's the end and I'm not afraid, Draco. I'm not afraid to die." she was crying now but a look of peace had passed over her face as he repeated her sentiments.

"I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to die." as the words of each other's acceptance passed between them, their spells completed, Draco was surrounded by roaring white flames. They did not burn him they almost felt like Hermione's embrace. Hermione too was feeling the same sensation. Cloaked in black flames she could feel his warmth, his love and as their eyes met across the distance the rest did not matter. As one they strode across the distance, not seeing how the duelling around them found a cease as all eyes watched this unexplained magical force that surrounded the pair. For those who did shoot curses at one of the walking teens they found the spell was simply absorbed by the fire, the more spells it absorbed the larger the flames became. In the centre of the courtyard they came to rest before each other, the flames pushed together but not connecting resisted as if by an invisible barrier between the two.

Hermione looked at Draco, and a small smile crossed both of their faces as their eyes locked. As one they reached up through the last barrier, their hands connecting. As Draco pulled Hermione forwards their lips met and the fires merged. As they kissed they accepted each other entirely, neither of them was truly light or truly dark. They were the balance, the balance that held sway over the world like night becoming day, the sun and the moon. Neither could live without the other as light could not live without dark.

And as they kissed the fire spread, like ripples extending from within them. As if they were the pebble that had been cast into a still pond, the ripples spread out around them in warped black and white fire, pushing everyone to their knees. Wands which had moments ago been living extensions of their owners own arms became lifeless sticks, disintegrating away like the two that had created the spells before them.

There was only one left standing when the two star-crossed lovers finally broke apart with need of oxygen. Voldemort screamed out his rage as he looked at Draco and Hermione together cloaked in flames dark and light combined in all their glory. They turned towards him, if he had still held a heart it would have frozen in that moment. Hermione's eyes glowing with white fire, Draco's with black as they spoke as one voice, one being.

"How can you know light if you have not known darkness? This is the hour of shadows, you must embrace both within yourselves for the truth of power to be revealed. We accept our fate because it's the end and we're not afraid to die." Lightning laced from Voldemort's outstretched hand, striking the fire entombed lovers and Harry watched as Hermione and Draco raised their unconnected hands. The fire spewed forth like a tidal wave engulfing Voldemort with his own screaming torment as it consumed him. Hermione looked at Draco, who looked back before both turning to Harry. As the flames slowly died from their eyes they collapsed together as one.

**19 Years later.**

Harry looked at the red-faced Ron across the desk from him and sighed deeply.

"OK Ron, start from the beginning. What exactly did he do this time?" How had it honestly come to this he wondered as Ron jumped into the story. Instantly, the further he got the redder he became as his anger seethed through him.

"And then the dirty stinking ferret only decided to mock me in front of the whole class singing bloody Weasley is our king!" The chuckle behind Ron made him turn in his hair and growl.

"It's not funny, you stinking ferret." he basically screamed as Draco lay floating in mid-air, arms behind his head as he glided serenely along chuckling to himself.

"Malfoy." Harry warned as from behind him he heard the portrait of Dumbledore try and hide a chuckle behind a cough as Harry too found himself trying not to laugh at his best friend. Ron was in quite a pickle it seemed after the interruption of his flying class. Ron had chased Malfoy into the school, taunting him into shooting one of Ginny Potter's famous bat eyed bogey curses at him, forgetting that as a ghost Malfoy would not be affected by such magic. Malfoy had placed himself perfectly before the mirror that had then proceeded to reflect the spell back upon the caster, leaving Ron with black bat's bogeys hanging from his nose and flying around his mouth and eyes, making him unable to cast the counter charm until he had found Harry.

"God, you're all against me!" Ron shouted as he threw his arms in the air before sitting back down with them crossed across his chest in a huff.

"I wish Mione was here, she would have helped me!" Harry who had by this point started to laugh at the state he had found Ron in couldn't help himself. It had been such a funny sight and when the first years he had been teaching to fly had told him it was Ron's own curse, he was merrily reminded of the time Ron's wand had backfired and he had ended up spewing slugs for 2 days. That was with Malfoy too if he remembered rightly.

There was a voice at the door and Harry called, 'Enter' as he tried to control himself once more. Hermione entered, floating through the door as she took in the three men she loved sitting around the desk.

"I hope what I have just been hearing from the first years is incorrect." she said scowling and crossing her arms across her chest. Instantly Draco was upright and looking everywhere but at her while Ron began shouting again about what a prat Malfoy was and why the hell did she even like the git? Couldn't she send him on without her? Draco scowled at Ron.

"It's not like I want to be stuck here weasel, but Hermione didn't want to leave her friends behind so here I bloody well am! And with twits like you for friends I can see why she bloody had to stay here and look after you, you don't have two brain cells to rub together." Harry sighed, _here they go again_ he thought as he watched Hermione getting more and more annoyed.

"ENOUGH!" she finally screamed and instantly, the two men quit their bickering match.

"Now both of you are not children any more and you should not behave as such! What kind of example are you setting for the children? If you pair cannot even behave civilly together how can we expect them to?!" Harry watched as they both refused to look her in the eyes and Harry smiled at her, thanking her without words as Hermione smiled back. It was strange, he could no longer hug his best friend, well not in the sense of her soul anyway. Hers and Malfoy's bodies still lay in the entrance yard of the school entwined together in their death. The spell they had used had been from their very life source itself, killing them both when it had been completed. Though he hated the sacrifice they had made, he knew without both of them the war would have been lost.

He stood and looked out of his office window at the white opal body of Hermione and the black opal body of Draco. Their bodies had been left exactly where they fell, they would never be moved from that spot and would always be honoured. It had shocked Harry the first time to find Hermione and Draco sitting calmly on their own bodies in ghost form, but he had been happy all the same. In their quiet moments, Hermione said they would all go together when the time came, but until then they were stuck with her. Malfoy just came as part of that package. She loved him and Harry had to admit he loved her.

"Now if you two can behave for five minutes, I need to go and prepare for my next class. We have N.E.W.T's and O.W.L's soon and I will not have my classes disrupted by childish behaviour. Do I make myself clear?" both men nodded as Harry smiled on at them.

"Draco it may be better if you stay away from Ron and next to Mione." Harry said while raising his eyebrows slightly. Draco grabbed Hermione's hand spinning her in the air before bending her over and kissing her before them both.

"Don't worry The-boy-who-lived-to-become-Hogwarts-headmaster, I intend to and further than death do us part." Hermione giggled and kissed Draco again as the paintings around the room chuckled while Ron looked sick. Harry just shook his head and shared a knowing look with Dumbledore's painting who winked at him, his eyes sparkling over his half moon spectacles. Life might not be perfect, but it was close.

**Fin.**

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**The way its going I will be doing a one shot a day...That's scary!**

**The ending to this was one of the hardest things about it!**

**I was pulling my hair out I had so many ways it could have gone.**

**So big big huggles and thanks too:**

**A Pirate By Any Other Name**

**go read her stuff its wonderful.**

** u/3518954/**

**any idea's for tomorrow's one shot?**

**I can work with songs, or just general needs and wants :)**

_**Thank you for reading :)**_

**Neh xxx**


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